The Midnight Gospel is an adult animated mini-series that was co-created by Pendleton Ward (the creator of Adventure Time) and Duncan Trussell, and it is one of the coolest and most original things I’ve seen in a long time. The series follows a dude named Clancy who lives on a faraway planet where he spends his time exploring simulated realities and interviewing people in those simulations to put into his space-cast. Going in I was kind of expecting this to be like an adult version of Hilda like it was gonna have a lot of death, gore, and swearing but overall it was gonna be something that you could vibe with despite all of that. That certainly is true about parts of this show, the soundtrack, color schemes and the voices of all of the characters are really nice and calming. However, it can get a little bit intense, and there are a lot of things that you need to be paying attention to at any given moment.
The first thing that I want to touch on is the art style. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the simplistic character design and low frame rate of the animation, but honestly, I really liked how both of those things were implemented and I think it makes the show a lot more charming. And the simple character designs are there to offset the really intricate backgrounds and other trippy visuals. Oh yeah, this show is pretty much a drug trip, but if you like those kinds of visuals at all then I don’t think it’ll bother you that much. One little thing that I really love about the animation is that no two characters move the same way and it was really interesting to see what they were going to do differently with each new character that we meet. It’s also a pretty gory show, and I’ve heard people describe it as nightmare fuel, but I didn’t really get that. All of the blood and innards that are shown are so cartoony and stylized that I was never grossed out seeing them. Like for example, the blood honestly looks more like it has the consistency of jelly than it does with real blood. I think by the midpoint of the first episode you’ll know if you can handle the gore or not. The only real issue I have with the art direction is how the hands are drawn. I know from personal experience that hands are tough to draw and animate, but I feel like they could’ve made them look just a little bit more like hands.
This show is formatted in one of the most unique ways that I’ve ever seen, that being that most of the dialogue during Clancy’s interviews are lifted directly from Duncan Trussell’s real-life podcast. I’ve heard complaints about this aspect of the show too, but I really like how it’s handled. The dialogue sounds so natural and it makes the characters feel like real, believable people, because they are. And with so many shows where the interactions with characters feel so unnatural, it’s refreshing to see these characters talking to each other in a believable way. What I’ve seen people taking issue with is all of the trippy visuals going on while the interviews are happening. I understand why people think that’s distracting, but I think it gives the worlds that the interviews are taking place in more character. Like yeah, the zombie apocalypse is happening, but it’s not that big of a deal, we can still talk about the legalization of drugs lol. Also, you don’t necessarily have to have a deep interest in the subject matter of the interviews to get something out of them. For example, quite a few episodes are about meditation and eastern philosophy, neither of which I have any interest in, but hearing the characters talk about it in such a natural way was so interesting I wanted to hear more. I actually might go hunt down the original podcasts to hear the whole thing. I think it’s worth noting that I generally don’t like podcasts because there’s nothing to look at because I’m a big dummy who isn’t really entertained by things that I can’t see with my own eyes, and that’s why I really like this show. It gets me to listen to a podcast while also getting drop dead gorgeous art to go with it.
I also really like all of the characters. There’s, of course, our main character Clancy, who is really chill most of the time. He has such a calming presence, and you can see why he’s such a good interviewer. But he’s also not afraid to talk about his own not as favorable life experiences in such a natural and lowkey way. For example in the first episode he talks to the person he’s interviewing about how he almost died from a mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills but he phrases it something like, “broooo you know I almost died from that at a party right? It was wild!” Of course, there are times throughout the series where he gets angry and sad, but a majority of the time he’s generally calm and upbeat.
The people that Clancy interviews are just as interesting to watch though. I don’t think there was a single one of them that I didn’t like, they were all cool in their own ways, but I’ll go over my favorites. The first person that Clancy interviews is the president of an America that is dealing with the zombie apocalypse. By the way he acts, you can tell that he sees the situation as nothing more than a minor inconvenience as he just casually shoots zombies moves from one hideout to the next as he’s being interviewed. I also really enjoyed the fish man from the third episode. I thought he was fine in the episode, but then I found out that he’s voiced by one of the West Memphis 3 and that adds a whole new layer onto his character. Seriously though, you should really research the guest stars for all of the episodes before you watch them because there might be someone who you’ve heard of and that makes the episode even cooler. Anyway, I liked Trudy the knight as well. She had the most complete story out of all of the people being interviewed and her healing rose was a cool reoccurring plot point. And I won’t dare spoil who the last guest star is, because I can only imagine that if you get emotional easily that this episode is gonna be a total tear-jerker. That aside, my all time favorite guest is Death. This was actually the thing that pushed me to watch the show, I was looking through the guest stars and I saw Caitlin Doughty was gonna play Death and I was hooked. I’ve been a fan of Catlin’s work on YouTube for years and getting to see her voice act in a beautifully animated series was like a dream come true. And the subject matter of the episode was pretty much what she normally talks about on her YouTube channel, so I pretty much just got an animated episode of Ask a Mortician, and it was everything I could’ve possibly dreamed of.
My main issue with the series is the story going on outside of the simulation. Maybe I’m just stupid, but I didn’t understand why every planet exploded after Clancy visited, like outside of it being a pretty visual. I also thought the plot of the dad of one of Clancy’s fans wanting him dead was really rushed and it felt kind of out of place. But I guess it was worth it to get to the wonderful final moments of the show. Though, I did like the sub-plot about Clancy and his sister. They never say outright what his issue with her is, but it feels like a real relationship and it’s a cool detail to add to the story.
If you were wondering, my favorite episode is Turtles of the Eclipse, for the reasons I said before about how much I adore Caitlin Doughty. I think all of the episodes are good, but the one that I personally liked the least was Annihilation of Joy. I don’t know, the time loop of the soul prison was pretty, but it was also a little too repetitive for my taste. I still think it’s worth the watch for Jason the soul bird though.
Overall, I enjoyed The Midnight Gospel a lot. This was obviously a passion project on Ward’s part and I think it really shows. I certainly don’t think it’s for everyone, but if anything that I said sparks your interest, I would highly recommend checking it out. You’ll know by the end of the first episode if this is something you’ll enjoy or not.
Nancy With a Z 